Scott Moore: Welcome to the "Building Faith and Family" podcast with Steve Demme.  I'm your host, Scott Moore. Thanks for joining us today. Good morning, Steve. How  are you today? 

Steve: I'm well. How are you? 

Scott: I'm good. 

Steve: I was out walking my pups this morning, and one of my neighbors driving by  pulled over. He said, "By the way, I've listened to 12 of your podcasts.” He added, “I  can tell you normally record after you're walking your dogs.” 

Steve: Today we're going to do Exodus 6‑20. This is compelling reading, if I can put  it that way. This is the stuff that you could make movies out of because of the  richness, the imagery and the spiritual significance as the characters are being  developed. 

Scott: I think they did make a movie or two about this. 

Steve: They did, and I still have trouble not seeing Charlton Heston when I'm thinking  of Moses standing before the Red Sea. Before we start, I want to read one portion of  Scripture from 1 Corinthians 10:1‑6. 

"I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud,  and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in  the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink, for  they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was  Christ.  

Nevertheless, with most of them, God was not well pleased, for they were laid low in  the wilderness. Now these things happened to them and are examples, warnings, and  admonition for us not to desire or crave or covet or lust after evil and carnal things as  they did.” 

There are many reasons for reading the "Old Testament." That is a big reason right  there. The last verse I took from the amplified version, to stretch it out. These things  happened to them, and they're examples for us. When we're reading this, we're not  reading it at arm's length saying, "Oh, this is interesting, or this happened to the  Israelites long ago.” 

These people were our forefathers, and their story was recorded so that we could  learn from their mistakes. 

Father, give us ears to hear what you're saying to us today, and help us to embrace  these examples because we do not want to make the same mistakes and bear the  punishment that they did. In Jesus' name, amen. 

Scott: Amen. 

Steve: I've highlighted a few verses from each of chapters 6 through 20. Chapter 6  verse 8, "Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses  because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery." That's poignant to me, because he  had just given them an outline of exactly what was going to happen. 

When they had heard what Moses said, they were happy. They worshiped. Yes! God  has heard our prayers. He's going to take us out of Egypt. Yet, as soon as Pharaoh  took away the straw, their slavery became harsh, and their spirits were broken, and  

they couldn't remember the good news Moses had just communicated to them. Exodus 7:5. 

This is something that we sometimes forget in the phenomenal plagues as the arm of  God is being revealed in this interplay between Moses and Pharaoh and God. The big  point, this is God. "This is God who doesn't desire that any should perish," says Peter. 

"The Egyptians shall know that I am Jehovah when I stretch out My hand against Egypt  and bring out the people of Israel from among them." God loves Egyptians, and He  wanted them to know that He was Jehovah, and not their false gods. At the end of these plagues, there is a great awareness among the Egyptians, and  hopefully a great harvest, the people now say, "No, Jehovah, He is God." Isaiah 26:9,  "When your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn  righteousness.” Judgments are great teachers. The Egyptians learned about Jehovah." When my dad started reading his Bible many years ago, he struggled with this whole  idea of Pharaoh’s hard heart. I looked up the Hebrew for hard heart, and it's not a  happy word. In fact, almost every time it appears in the Old Testament, it has to do  with obstinate, stubborn, stiff‑necked. 

It's the antithesis of what our hearts are supposed to be. Ideally our hearts should be  soft, teachable, humble, but Pharaoh's heart was hardened. Yet sometimes it says,  "God hardened His heart." Other times it says, "Pharaoh hardened His heart." It's a mystery to me too, but my dad would say, "Why is Pharaoh getting in trouble if  God's the one that hardened His heart?" I don't know, but I will say this, God is good.  God is just, all the time. God knows what He's doing. 

There are times like this when I have to trust God and know that in the long run, even  in the short run, in any run, He's the one that's right all the time. 

I did notice in the 8th chapter that several of the plagues, the magicians were able to  replicate, like when they threw down their rods and they became snakes. It says in the  18th verse, the magicians tried by their secret arts to produce gnats, but they could  not. There were gnats on man and beast. 

Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, "This is the finger of God." I like to think that the  magicians were the first converts of Egypt. These Egyptians that were learning about  God, these magicians were the first to understand about the power of Jehovah. They  knew what they could do, what they couldn't do.  

Something else happened in 8:21-22, "The houses of the Egyptians will be filled with  swarms of flies, … On that day I will set apart the land of Goshen where My people  dwell, so that no swarms of flies shall be there, that you may know that I am Jehovah  in the midst of the earth. Thus, I will put a division between My people and your  people." 

He's making a distinction. He has set apart the land of Goshen and the people of  Israel.  

Chapter 9, to reinforce some of what we've already said. "I could have put out my  hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut  off from the earth." 9:15-16, "But for this purpose I have raised you (Pharaoh) up to  show you My power, so that My name may be proclaimed in all the earth, even beyond  the boundaries of Egypt.” God's name is going to be proclaimed in all the known  world because of what's happening in Egypt." 

Then, as I mentioned, note the antithesis of a hard heart 10:3, Moses and Aaron went  to Pharaoh and said to him, "Thus says Jehovah, the God of the Hebrews, 'How long  will you refuse to humble yourself before me?'" That's the posture God was looking  for. "Humble yourselves before me." 

11th chapter. I used to feel funny about asking for silver and gold jewelry when I read  it. Back in the 3rd chapter, 22nd verse, it says, "Each woman shall ask of her neighbor  and any woman who lives in her house for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing.  You shall put them on your sons and on your daughters, so you shall plunder the  Egyptians." 

He told them exactly what was going to happen way back in the 3rd chapter. Then he  brings it about, and here he's reminding them, "Go get the jewelry."  Exodus 12 

I'm trying to imagine what it would be like to have spent 400 years living a certain  way, eating a certain food, what my rhythm, my heritage, would look like. Think in  terms of America back in the sixteen hundreds. We are a new nation. In the twelfth chapter, not only do they get a new nation, they get a new calendar. He  says, "Make this the first month.” I couldn't help but think about how God is the one  Who makes us new creations, and He's making Israel a new nation, for He's the one  that makes all things new.  

This is a also tough chapter because in the twelfth verse, "I will go through the land of  Egypt in that night, and I will smite all the firstborn.” He is going to smite the  firstborn in the land of Egypt, man and beast, "And against all the gods of Egypt I will  execute judgments." There was more going on than met the eye test. As terrible it  was to have firstborn of animal, man, beast, perish, there was also a spiritual conflict  going on, and God was executing judgment against all the gods of Egypt. This idea brought to mind Zephaniah 2:11, "Jehovah will be terrible unto them, for He  will famish all the gods of the earth, and men shall worship Him, everyone from His  place, even all the isles of the nations." This same thing is happening in Egypt. All kinds of false religions and false beliefs and false systems, are going to come  crashing down. When it's all done, God will be the only one standing when he  famishes all the gods of the earth.  

Next we have this incredible thing called the Passover, which is very readable. I don't  think I need to go through each of the perspectives because you can read it. That's  why we're reading our Bible, and the Bible was meant to be read, and it's pretty clear.  It says in the 13th verse, "The blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses  where you are. When I see the blood, I will pass over you." Hence the word passover. 

"There shall be no plague be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt.  This day shall be unto you for memorial. It shall be a feast throughout your  generations by an ordinance forever. This is something that you're going to continue  to celebrate one of the three feasts, but this feast, the feast of Passover, so you don't  forget." 

There are so many parallels in the feast of Passover, also this is the basis for the  Lord's Supper, where we have a lamb who was slain. When the lamb is slain, and we  see His blood and apply it to our bodies, God in the Spirit passes over us, and we  have life. We escape death. They also had to eat the lamb, just as we eat the body and  blood of Jesus. 

This is the foundation, the foreshadowing of Christ, the Passover lamb. It's the basis  for the Lord's Supper, when we will remember Jesus dying just like they had the feast  of Passover, to remember what wonderful things God did for them Egypt. As I read it this time, I now have a firstborn son. The wailing and the grief that the  land experienced that night were terrible. At the same time, it was wonderful, because  while they lost their firstborn, it was a foreshadowing that this Jesus, God's firstborn,  was going to redeem the children of Israel that believe in Him. 

Notice Exodus 12:40-41, tucked in there in two verses. I think it is so worth noting  because this is our dad. He's got everything under control, ”The time that the  children of Israel dwelt in Egypt was 430 years. It came to pass at the end of 430  years, even the self same day it came to pass, that all the hosts of Jehovah went out  from the land of Egypt.” 

He had told them, 'This is how long you're going to be in Egypt,' and they were there  to the day.” Think of all the variables that could have happened, but God had it all  under control. My friend Joey that passed away this past year, would always say that  when I would ask him, "How are you doing?” “God's in control." God is in control, and  that's a huge faith builder for us. 

Exodus 13, "Jehovah said to Moses, 'Consecrate or sanctify or set apart as holy, that's  what the word means, all the firstborn.’" If the kids ask you, "Why do we do this?" Tech them, "When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, Jehovah killed all the  firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of men and the firstborn of animals.  'Therefore I sacrificed to Jehovah all the males that first opened the womb, but all the  firstborn of my sons I redeem.” They're mine. I'm going to take care of them.'" At the end of the 13th chapter, all of a sudden God appears as a pillar of cloud and a  pillar of fire. He has not departed from His people, He is with them. He was not just  there in Egypt for a season, then after He does a big thing, He goes back and reads  the paper. He was intimately involved in every day of their life by day and by night. 14th chapter, the Red Sea, no explanation needed. Unbelievable.  

15th chapter, people are just getting to know God. This is all new stuff. This is a new  generation. They've been praying for God to rescue them, but they really didn't know  too much about God, this new deity, you might say. 

Moses uses this event as a tremendous teaching tool. In the second and third verses  I'll read a little sampling. "Jehovah is my strength and song, and He has become my  salvation. This is my God. I will praise Him, my father's God. I will exalt Him. Jehovah  is a man of war. Jehovah is His name." 

Moses is teaching the people this is Who has been leading us out of Egypt and Who  we are following now. In the 11th verse he says, "Who is like You, O Jehovah, among  the gods? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing  wonders? You stretched out Your right hand. The earth swallowed them. You have led  in Your steadfast love the people whom You have redeemed. You have guided them  by Your strength to Your holy abode." 

Wow. It is amazing how much these people went through in a short amount of time  after living in Egypt for 400 years. There’s a part of me that understands them. "Man,  now they're in this wilderness. Where's the food going to come from? Where's the  water going to come from? I wish we were back sitting by our fires eating leaks." They'd forgotten the harsh reality of slavery already. They wanted to go back to what  was familiar. God was patiently teaching them. In the 16th chapter. They're  grumbling. They're hungry. “ Did you bring us out to kill us in the wilderness?" They didn't know God. They were learning. God provided quail. God provided manna.  God provided their food, and then in the 17th chapter, as they're murmuring again.  "We've got food, but what's good about food alone, We’re going to die of thirst out  here." 

"No." 6th verse. "I will stand before you on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the  rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink." I have a picture, of  God being smitten, struck by a rod so that the people could drink. Now that's a  teaching tool. We can spend a lot of time on that one. 

Also in the 17th chapter, we see that flesh and blood is not our enemy. There's a  huge spiritual conflict going on here because Amalek is attacking Israel. Moses said,  "Joshua, put together an army." He did. 

Then while Joshua is on the field fighting, Moses is up on top of the mount with Aaron  and Hur at his side, and he's lifting up his hands. As long as his hands were up Joshua  prevailed. When his hands dropped Joshua lost. 

I've shared this before, but I believe that that's our job, many of us, to be up on the  mount with our hands raised. This is what we're doing, I'm thankful for the Joshua's  that are ministering in pro‑life centers in Washington, missionaries. These are  fighting the day to day. They're the boots on the ground. They're the Joshua's. There needs to be Moses’s as well. We can't send Joshua out with a check, a God bless  you and a Christmas card. We need to be praying for them. We need to have our  hands raised. 

I met a local congressman at a fundraising event, and next thing you know, I turn,  and he's standing right beside me. I looked down and I said, "Do you mind if I tell you  something?" "You're Joshua, and I'm going to pray for you like Moses prayed for  Joshua." 

I'm following him now on Facebook. He is a good man, and he's doing a good work,  and it's my job to continue to remember this congressman and pray for him that he'll  continue to have success. 

18th chapter. You know how we have on social media, we have acronyms or little  abbreviations. We say SIL would be his son‑in‑law. Is that right? LOL was the first one  I recall, laugh out loud. This is Moses FIL or Father‑in‑law. 

Scott: New translation you're coming up with here? 

Steve: Yes. Jethro appears. Jethro watches him, and he said at the end of the day,  Moses probably thinking that his father‑in‑law say, "Wow, what a good work you're  doing." Instead, "You're not going to last a month, pal." 

He basically said to him, "You have to learn to delegate because you are not able to  bear this by yourself." Moses listened. He really was the meekest man on the face of  the earth. He listened to his father‑in‑law and he lived to a ripe old age. I remember my mom and dad would come down when Sandi and I were living in a  parsonage, and we had elderly people from the North. We were in Georgia ‑ they  would come down in the winter and live in our apartment downstairs, eat meals with  us. We had people staying over the holidays with us. 

We were always pouring out. My parents said, "You're not going to make it." They  were right, and we did burn out. We need to learn to listen. I thought that was pretty  special.  

19th chapter, verses 4 through 6, ”You yourselves have seen what I did to the  Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself." It makes  me want to cry. He didn't simply take them out of Egypt. He brought them to Himself,  to His mountain.  

"Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, you shall be  My treasured possession among all peoples. For all the earth is Mine, and you shall be  to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." 

This is what He's holding out to them. "You've seen what I did. You know I carried you  because you couldn't even do it yourself. I fed you. I've got water. I've given you  bread, quail. I've done everything I need to do. I've carried you. I'm the pillar of fire.  I'm the pillar of cloud, and I brought you to Myself. 

If you will obey Me, keep My covenant, My words," which we're going to read about in  the next podcast, "You shall be My treasured possession among all peoples. You'll be  to me a kingdom of priests." By the way, if I can tuck in there, "Then you're not going  to need a Levite tribe, because you'll all be priests to Me. You will all be Mine." 

Sadly, they didn't accept it.  

20th chapter, the 10 Commandments. There is very little explanation needed.  Recently I’ve taken it upon myself to read two commandments a day from the 10  Commandments. It helps, even though I've memorized them. 

When God set apart the tabernacle, which I'm getting ahead of myself again, but when  He did, they had an ark, and the ark was the central point of the tabernacle, the holiest of holies. In the ark was nothing except the 10 commandments written on two  tablets of stone. These are powerful documents. 

As a wrap‑up, we've seen mighty judgments. We've seen God making the whole world  know that he is God. He used two men, Moses and Aaron. Those were His spokesmen.  They represented Him. In our last days, which are for us, I believe, we're going to see  two anointed ones arise. 

Read about them in Zechariah. You read about them in Revelation. They’re going to  be God's spokesman. I don't know where they are. I do believe they're alive. I'm praying for them that God will help them, give them ears to hear what God is  teaching them, and they will be effective spokesmen for Him in these last days when  He clears the air, and when it's all the dust settles, God alone will be king over the  earth. We did it in faster than ought we would have. What do you think, Scott? Scott: Pretty powerful stuff. The one thought that occurred to me, this isn't my own  original thought, but I've heard it from someone. I don't remember who. Part of what  God is doing here is creating a new culture for them. 

Scott: When you talk about reestablishing the calendar with Passover. I mean, they've  been in slavery for a long time. There's no culture at all other than whatever the  Egyptians told them to do. All of this stuff is rebooting everything to make them His  people, and He's going to give them, He does the 10 commandments, and then He's  going to give the rest of the law and all that. 

This is all in order to establish them as the set apart people of God. Of course, they  resist Him at every step, but that's a pretty huge theme to me. 

Steve: Yeah. I really like that word you used, reboot. There's a part of me that  understands their complaining and their murmuring. There's another part of me  though that says, "God, how did You keep loving these people?" 

He is patient. He is long suffering. This is what we're observing because, like you said,  they fight Him at almost every point in turn, and He's doing it for their good. Thank  You, Father, for Your incredible word, and thank You that You've given us these  examples. You recorded them. 

Help us to not kick. Help us to not fuss because this is new stuff for us when we  follow You. Help us to not murmur in the wilderness. Help us to not complain against  our spiritual leaders. All these different applications we could make, but You gave us  these examples, and I pray that You'll give us ears then to hear and to understand and  to follow as we should in Jesus' name. 

Thank You that You're good. Thank You that You are a man of war, but thank You  that You're also full of loving kindness and truth. In Jesus' name, amen. Scott: Amen. That's our show for this week, folks. Thanks for joining us for the  Building Faith and Family podcast with Steve Demme. If you have a question for the  show, email Steve at spdemme@Gmail.com. Thanks for joining us. Have a great week.